Abkhazia

As has been reported, last April the Monitoring Committee met during the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. A special subcommittee was created at that meeting - the Ad hoc Sub-Committee on Conflicts between Member States of the Council of Europe. This new entity, which will be directly responsible for looking into so-called «frozen conflicts» in the former Soviet Union, should have official status and begin its work in June. It met for the first time in Paris on May 27...

Some time ago, a statement by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen appeared on the organisation’s website, that relic from last century’s cold war that has been coveting “global responsibility” in the 21st century, on issues relating to strengthening the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia with Georgia...A possible relaxation of the border regime with South Ossetia and Abkhazia is probably attainable, but outside of an equal dialogue with Sukhumi and Tskhinvali, achieving any kind of progress on this or any other issues will be impossible. In addition, the expansion of political contacts between Tbilisi and Moscow is incompatible with the increased military presence of extra-regional forces on Georgian soil…

...Some reinvigoration of Russia-Georgia economic contacts and links between non-government organizations does not mean Russia is intent to deviate from its fundamental policy decision to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia... The issue of guaranteeing the security of South Ossetia will be gaining significance for Russia with the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi drawing closer... The military modernization is implemented under the close scrutiny of the USA and NATO. The specific feature of the process is getting close with the military of neighboring Turkey and Azerbaijan...

A State Department cable divulged by WikiLeaks points to the hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy and how Washington has pressured countries into not recognizing Abkhazia/South Ossetia by exerting pressure directly or via its allies... Perhaps the most draconian use of U.S. pressure regarding recognition of Abkhazia/South Ossetia was the pressure Washington, London, and Paris applied on four poor African states, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, and Mali...

Even if we accept that there was a plausible military imperative to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – to bring about a swift defeat of Japan and thus an end to the Pacific War – the horror of civilian death toll from those two no-warning aerial attacks places a disturbing question over the supposed ends justifying the means...